The morning was off to an awful start.
For weeks, I’d been looking forward to volunteering for a Habitat for Humanity build.
I wasn’t counting on the heavy rain that fell overnight. Nor did I expect to turn the key of my old truck and hear the sound every driver dreads: Click click click click.
Yet, somehow, I made it to the build site that Saturday morning. Sure, I was a few minutes late, which cut into my drinking-coffee-and-chit-chat time. But I was here. Ready to do my part. Eager to start. Just in time for the orientation.
As we huddled in the cold, Clark Howard walked us through a quick overview of the program and some safety instructions – all delivered from a portable microphone, which, he told us, cost only $29 from Costco.com (why, of course).
Then, we met the soon-to-be-homeowners. I’d be working on a home for Monique Jones, who works at the Fulton County office of the Division of Family and Children Services.
“I’m lost for words,” she told me about owning a home, “just so happy.”
Before we began, one of the construction leaders asked for someone with carpentry skills, and I raised my hand. Moments later, a group from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was tackling a deck. It was already framed out, but we needed to install another post or two, reinforce some bracing, pour some concrete and run the decking.
As we hit our first 4x4 post, the group panicked. Not me. I sketched out some quick markings, grabbed a jigsaw and made the perfect cut. Well … let’s just say it took more than one try, but it was pretty close. The next two cuts around the two other 4x4s were even tighter.
Even though it had stopped raining, pieces of roofing material drizzled from above. Clark Howard and a group of folks from Cox Media Group, Publix and AT&T were installing shingles. At one point, I swear, Clark Howard threw a soda can off the roof and nearly hit me.
When it came time to make a final cut around the last 4x4, a guy in overalls asked if we needed help. Clearly he had no idea I consider myself the Charlie Daniels of the jigsaw. He sensed I was insulted – or so I think – because he scoured the site looking for one more decking board so we can finish and handed it to me as if to say, “Sorry, man.”
With the deck finished, we moved onto a porch railing. I burned out a drill bit, and like any good manager, quickly looked around for someone to blame before ’fessing up to our foreman, Reid Lockwood.
To say he’s a patient man is an understatement – like calling Frank Sinatra a singer.
Lockwood is one of the full-time workers. He’s been with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity for seven years and has helped build nearly 40 homes.
“I love this job,” he told me. “There’s a bond when you’re building someone a home. It’s an amazing process.”
The best part of his job? Those are the Saturdays, he said, when volunteers, like me, show up.
As the build came to a close, Monique took a break from hanging insulation and painting the foundation to give me a tour of her new home: The walls were still down to studs, and we’re standing on a plywood subfloor.
But Monique can already see it: “This is where all the good cooking is going to go down,” she said, standing in what will soon be her kitchen. “I love the deck. Thank you!” I followed her to the shell of another bedroom, this one for her 6-year-old daughter, Emilyce.
“She’s so excited,” Monique said. “She keeps asking, ‘Mommy, did you build my room yet?’ ”
Before arriving Saturday, I assumed Habitat homeowners, like Monique, had to log so many hours of sweat equity in exchange for the keys. But the program is much more rigorous.
Monique, for instance, will spend 250 hours helping build her home and volunteering with Atlanta Habitat. She’ll attend mandatory classes on how to handle money, on home maintenance and other issues that come with owning a home. She’ll eventually qualify a for zero-percent interest mortgage.
She began this process back in October, and on this dreary Saturday, she can’t help but marvel at how far she’s come – and how close she is.
“Look at where I’m at today,” she said. “This is a blessing.”
Yes it is.
As for me, I was proud to join Clark Howard and so many others from Cox who turned out that Saturday to help make the communities we cover a better place. Each of us played a small role in such a big accomplishment.
As I left, Monique gave me a hug and thanked me once again.
Neither of us, it seemed, could be happier.
